Premier League Saturday, Gameweek 25: Open Thread

With no midweek league or cup competitions during the upcoming mid-week (other than international friendlies), it means the Premier League are squashing more games into today than normal. Eight, in fact, while the remaining two are scheduled for tomorrow.

Take your pick today from the entertaining matches in store in a league where every game matters. Starting off the action is Norwich City traveling to Loftus Road to play Queens Park Rangers. Christopher Samba may not play due to fitness concerns, but even if he doesn’t, QPR should have the wealth of players to pick from to get their first home win since mid-December.

Next up are six matches being played out at the same time (10am ET/3pm UK time). Newcastle plays Chelsea at St. James’s Park, while Arsenal are at home against their friendly rivals Stoke City. Wigan plays Southampton in a relegation battle. Speaking of a side in jeopardy of relegation, Aston Villa plays away against Everton. Meanwhile, West Ham United are hoping to lift themselves up the table with their home match versus Swansea. And last but not least, Reading takes on Sunderland at Madejski Stadium.

The last match of the day could be a snoozer if it’s anything like the pitiful performance Fulham put on in the FA Cup a couple of weeks ago against Manchester United. However, Fulham are playing at home, have new signings on board and will be buoyed after beating West Ham midweek.

Before, during or after today’s matches, post your rants, raves, questions or observations in the comments section below.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

48 Comments

IanCransonsKneesFebruary 2, 2013

The Gooners can expect an easy 3 points today. Should be a high scoring match for them. Our annual mid season slump has taken hold. We’ll pick up in the next couple of weeks I think once our side settles again. I’ll be interested to see the reception Danny Graham gets from the Mackems.

my side is becoming the laughing stock of the Championship League.it is very sad to see.if they get rid of mcleast i think we will have 4 managers in lest than a year now that is a joke.let Lee Camp go for nothing and bring in some Kuwaiti very sad.

Once you have looked at the weird format MLS uses take a close look at San Jose. They play good football have Frank Yallop as their manager. Their main rivals are la galaxy with lots of history between them, it is dubbed the “California Classico”.

They won the “supporters shield” which is essentially the equivalent of winning the league. The mals cup is a cup competition that the top 6 league teams from west and east then play in to win. Like the Super Bowl, MLB, nba formats.

Being the best team over 38 games just gets you a higher seeding in the MLS cup… It’s weird

Extremely impressive debut. As great of a player as Ba is, he never seemed to work well with Cisse. Just on the evidence of one match it looks like the Toon may get more out of Sissoko + Cisse than Ba + Cisse going forward.

They can always hire Manpower and get a temp. That’s all a Chelsea manager is. Wonder when the Blues fans are going to do some math and look at the constants in their problems: the players and Abromovich.

Speaking of, why not just make John Terry the manager since he is apparently running things from the boot room?

Well 2nd week in a row that Refs have completely failed. Colochini penalty and a send off as well as Cisse should have gone. Alan Pardew has been always been Mickey Mouse with West Ham and now with Newcastle. Chelsea got tired at the end and I will give credit to Sissoko for good finishes. Rob Stone is getting on my nerves so I’m out.

Man, you rags must be real happy now. 14 points clear! Oh, wait, no, that’s Bayern. Or was it 11? No, uh, Barca there. FOUR!?!?!? Oh damn, Juve for that. Hard to keep track of this, what with you folks supporting all these clubs so diligently and for so long. But as to the rags in particular…… gulp. 10. That’s pretty rough to claw back.

Oh well. Not our year, I’m beginning to think. As it usually isn’t. And if you needed it to be your year every year you would be a rag.

What a brilliant day of football today. This was one of those rare days where I missed almost all of the games live. I saw the bore draw this morning. But then my daughter had a soccer tournament, followed by a soccer fundraiser (where my wife’s food truck was serving fries), so by the time I got home I missed a ton of the games. But what a joy it was to see the brilliant games today (via highlights) of Newcastle-Chelsea, Everton-Aston Villa and so many other ones.